Flora of New Zealand Series

Taprooted annual. Stems 1-several, erect, glabrous, (15)-20-45 cm tall. Lvs glabrous or sparsely scabrid-ciliate on margin, green, linear to narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, sessile, shortly connate in pairs, (20)-40-100 × (1)-2-5-(10) mm. Infl. a lax (1)-3-7-(15)-flowered irregular dichasium; pedicels (2.5)-4-6-(10) cm long; bracts leaflike. Fls ⚥. Calyx glabrous, broadest in middle, contracted at mouth, veined on 10 thickened ridges, (15)-20-28 mm long; teeth linear-acuminate, erecto-patent. Petals pink or white to bluish (bluish when dry); limb shallowly emarginate; claw not lobed; coronal scales acute, dark, c. 2 mm long. Styles 5, erect, curved at apex, c. 10 mm long. Capsule narrow-ovoid, included in calyx, 15-20 mm long; teeth 5, 2-fid; carpophore 6-8 mm long. Seeds dark grey-brown, reniform, warty, 0.8 mm long.

N.: Auckland, Wanganui, Wellington; S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago; St.

S.W. Europe to Italy 1958

Waste land, railway yards, riverbeds.

FL Nov-Dec FT Dec-Feb.

The glabrous stems, lax dichasium of large fls, and glabrous, strongly 10-ribbed calyx with acuminate teeth distinguish S. coeli-rosa from other spp. of Silene and Lychnis in N.Z. The sp. is sometimes cultivated as viscaria, and has also been known as Lychnis coeli-rosa.